Salmon Jerky: A Whole Food Snack

Salmon Jerky

A Whole Food Snack


Whole Food Snack


Caroline from www.mygutsy.com is a friend of ours here at Pantry Paratus, and she knows whole food.  She must, because it is only through whole food and her discovery of kitchen self-sufficiency that she can thrive. 


It just so happens that it is one of her salmon recipes that we used several months ago when we had two bags of wild salmon evicted from the freezer for the sake of space.  Well, we had three bags; we ate one for dinner and “repurposed” the remaining two bags for a whole food snack. 


For as much as I enjoy seeing the fruit of my labor for a day spent in the kitchen preserving food, I do not enjoy a daily enslavement to the kitchen itself—especially in the summer months.  This is the great dichotomy of kitchen self-sufficiency: when you learn to produce, prepare, and preserve whole food, you are freed up to do other things because you need not return to the kitchen at 11:30am to get lunch ready every day.  I can escape to the park with the children because I know I have a well-stocked picnic bag that left the house with us.  If I am deliberate in the autumn and winter months to preserve food, I can grab it and go the rest of the year (mostly). 


I hope to make the case for jerky recipes as a whole.  Include jerky in your lunch bag, your hiking backpack, and keep some in your car for emergencies. By preparing yourself with a whole food snack at all times, you will be far less likely to splurge on vending machine fodder when your stomach is crying out for real food!


Slicing Salmon



How to Make Jerky


Step 1: Find a recipe that you will enjoy.  We used the salmon jerky recipe found here at mygutsy.com.  It is posted below. Also, start with the freshest fish possible.


How to Make Jerky


Step 2: Prepare the marinade, slice the mostly-frozen salmon, and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.


 

Sliced Salmon

 


Some people slice off the salmon skin and then fry it in butter to make a “salmon bacon”.  I hate to speak disparagingly of a whole food, but there was nothing bacon about it—to us at least.  I am the only one in the family that cared for it, and it was not as delicious as others have made it sound to me.  Still, if you are not one to waste food and you do not have any hungry chickens, try it for yourself.  Why not?


 

Salmon Skin

 

 

 

I highly recommend you have the salmon mostly-frozen to make slicing easier (and safer). Also, I use an extremely sharp sushi knife–it is the right tool for the job.

 


Salmon in Marinade


Step 3: Pull out your Excalibur Dehydrator.  Do you even need to pull it ou?  It should be running 24/7 with a variety of homemade yogurt, drying herbs, sprouted wheat, or rising bread….but we will overlook that.  I highly recommend placing a paraflexx sheet in the bottom, to catch the dripping marinade.  Those paraflexx sheets are just so easy to clean, this will save some work for you.


Step 4: For long term food storage, be sure to package it properly with an oxygen absorber in a vacuum sealed bag or mylar bag.  Really though, you will initially be disappointed by the shrinkage in volume (until you take the first bite, that is), and we find that if we use an oxygen absorber in a mason jar, we will eat through it with nothing left for storage!  If you participate in a local salmon run and obtain fresh, wild salmon in quantity, please package it properly to ensure the freshest quality.

 

Salmon Jerky


Salmon Jerky Recipe

Adapted from mygutsy.com

Marinade:

½ cup raw apple cider vinegar

1 T organic lemon juice

1 T paprika, optional (mainly for color)

½ T onion powder

½ T garlic powder

1 ½ tsp sea salt

1 cup of filtered water

1 T citric acid, to help preserve color

 

14 oz wild salmon (partly frozen)

 

Enjoy this wonderfully crunchy, salty, whole food snack!

–Chaya


 



 

Proviso:

Nothing in this blog constitutes medical advice.  You should consult your own physician before making any dietary changes.  Statements in this blog may or may not be congruent with current USDA or FDA guidance.

 

Pictures are property of Pantry Paratus ©


Here is our podcast with Caroline from MyGutsy.com

 

www.Hypersmash.com

3 thoughts on “Salmon Jerky: A Whole Food Snack

  1. Hello Chaya,
    Love the website. I’ve been doing research all day as I plan to make my own jerky for the first time couple of weeks. Really good information here. Can anyone tell me how much jerky I will get from 2 pounds / 1 kilo of fresh Salmon Jerky????

    1. I hope you enjoy it! No, I have never successfully given anyone else measurements by volume on dehydrated foods. I think it has so much to do with both the starting and finished products having a lot of variables. Good luck, though!

  2. I love salmon and recently I’ve read it’s very good for the skin and hair.

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